What Wagner teaches us...

Being different is o.k. Let our U.K. X-Factor friend Wagner remind us that being different makes for a much more interesting world. Why does Wagner get more votes than Katie? Because he's more interesting, we want to keep him every week. Jedward had the same effect.
Wouldn't it be boring if the contestants were all of the same personality and talent?
Normalisation should not be the focus of teaching our children - let's embrace their differences, (quirky though they may be) and celebrate that being 'normal' is alright for some, but wouldn't the X-factor be a lot less interesting now if Katie (or someone else) stayed in and Wagner went out?

In the world of marketing, the article this week in The Sunday Business Post by Greg Canty talks about just this - daring to be different, putting your head above the rest will get you noticed. Not following the norm in your approach to life, people and education will undoubtedly raise a few eyebrows, but weigh it up - what would you rather be?
(Before you answer, Jedward have more than 2million in the bank......)

So here's our answer to Greg in Sunday Business Post- thank you for your article. We may or may not make 2 million, but we had great fun following your advice to 'grow your hair long, grow a moustache, buy a white flowing shirt and a big chain with a gold medallion....' - well here's a video snip of our response.
We are inspired by our differences. Love it or not, we had fun!

Claire.

Finding Christmas Presants for Special Needs Kids

Around this time of year, when Hallo'ween is over and thoughts turn to Christmas, notions of presants and shopping slowly start to come to mind.

For me, Christmas shopping is a nice neccessity, I love giving (and receiving) gifts, but what to get for each person is a November-long puzzle!

It's also around this time when I get asked for suggestions of what to buy for children with special needs. Finding toys and games that are appropriate can be difficult.

Here are a few ideas to consider:

Ask their Parents - find out what the chid is into, or if parents have ideas.

Things to ask are: (if it's puzzles or games) What is their piece-range for puzzles? - you might be suprised, some kids are extremely capable of jigsaws and puzzles with way more pieces than you imagine!

If you have something in mind, and you're not sure, it might be a good idea to run it passed the parents first.

If a child is into press-button cause and effect toys such as v-tech and they are getting a little older for baby/toddler toys, consider press-button books or computer games as an alternative.

If you are looking for something to help encourage motor skills, try the good old fashioned outdoors play equipment. Balls of different sizes and textures are great, and balance boards, hoppers and hula hoops are always useful.

Look for small, fun things that parents hide away and take out and use as reinforcers on difficult days - you will be thanked for these at a later date! Hand-held video games, bubbles, press button and light-up toys, small books etc, are great.

Take the child out for the day - give a voucher for a day out, and better still, bring them yourself if you can!

Books for bedtime and outings are always useful.

And my favourite idea? Make the child's own story book. Include their photographs, pets and family on an adventure.

I'll add more ideas as we get nearer, but feel free to post your ideas here:

Claire.

Teaching Social Skills in Primary School

Most primary school classrooms include one or more children who have difficulty with social skills. This could be due to a diagnosis of a condition such as: Autism, Aspergers or Down Syndrome. Difficulties may also relate to a child’s social circumstances within their family and community, needing a little extra help to relate to their peers.

Social Skills at primary level include:
Greetings
Understanding 2-way communication
Conversation skills
Eye contact
Body language
How we relate to each other

How does SST help with child’s future social development?

Children who lack social skills may:

Have difficulty making and maintaining friendships
Become socially isolated when they are older
Be at risk of emotional and psychological disorders
Experience fear of rejection and failure

Social Skills Training (SST) is a vital part of child development and could well be the most valuable lesson you teach today.

How can our programmes help?
Through ‘Hello’ and ‘How Are You?’ primary social skills are taught in a fun and easy way. Teach both 1-1 on a laptop/PC – and include the full class on your whiteboard.
Having both options is great to help with integration of special needs children into mainstream classes.
Even better - our interactive game includes all the teaching resources you need to print and use.

To view demos of our games visit: http://www.hometrain.ie
You can go there for more social skills information too.

Claire.

Demo of 'How Are You?' game!

You can take a look through the game here -

just click on the link below:

http://www.hometrain.ie/howareyou/#demo

Enjoy!

Claire.

'How Are You?' Game helps with bullying

A descision for many parents who have children with special needs
is letting their child out to play with their peers in the street, play area or local green. Developing relationships and playing with friends is a natural part of growing up, and a positive step forward, but a hard decision for parents to make when the time comes.

Nurturing and encouraging new friendships with your child is fine when it's comfortable, and you know the parents of the other children well.


However, it can be difficult if you notice your child is not being treated well by the other children, by ways that include: name calling, bullying, teasing and even physical violence.

Your child may not have told you this is happening, have the words to express their upset, or have a true understanding of what is happening to them.

Finding out how much your child understands about social skills and rules is by playing the game 'How Are You?' at home or in the classroom.

One of the sections of the How Are You? game is called 'Dont' Do That' - this section (like all of sections in the game) was designed with a group of schoolage children with different special needs. It explores scenarios including:

• Pushing and Kicking



• Name calling



• Being ignored



• Someone taking your toys/belongings

This part of 'How Are You?' teaches simple language skills for conflict resolution and responses to bullies. It also has a section called 'Ouch! That Hurt' - which helps children understand pain and how to tell someone where they are hurt. A whole range of printable worksheets and coloring pages are on the programme.

'How Are You?' covers basic emotions and social skills too. Other sections are called: 'How Are You?' 'Why Emotions Change?' and 'Staying Calm' - all with the eight boy and girl characters. There are three great games too.

With this game, children are playing and learning, letting you know how they feel about social highs and lows without feeling under pressure to directly discuss confusing emotions.

Take a look - it's here now: http://www.hometrain.ie/howareyou/

Best regards, Claire.

Launching 'How Are You?'

Helping children to learn about, understand and express their emotions can be a difficult task.

How Are You? - our new social skills game for special needs children, is being launched this weekend.

The topics it covers are:

• Social awareness


• Understanding and expressing feelings


• Relating to others


• Staying Calm
  
• Expressing pain when hurt


• Coping with bullying
  

There are many different sections of the game that teach using interactive images, sounds, voices and narration. There are also three fun games:

1. My Feelings Game - children explore and learn different emotions


2. What Should I do? Game - children answer questions about social rules


3. My Body Game - learn about different names for body parts

All our games are designed with and for special needs children with accessibility in mind. There is a large pointer, every screen is easy to navigate and you can go anywhere in the game with just one click.

Our games work on a home laptops and school whiteboards.

We pride ourselves in promoting learner independence and computer confidence too.

There is a pack of printable teaching resources with 'How Are You?' - come and play our games this Friday and Saturday (15th and 16th Oct) at our stand at the Irish Teaching and Learning Festival:

If you can't make the festival, a demo will be online next week on our site.
If you have any questions about 'How Are You?' - please contact me here or through the website.

Claire.

Stop Whining!

In every household in every country (even in other languages) every child as some stage, whether we like it or not, will be WHINEY.

I don't know about you, but it's one of my top five parent hates.



O.K. we can all whine, but when it becomes a behaviour with a child, such as whining in response to your (almost) every suggestion or request - here's a few ideas to help them stop:

• Ignoring the whine. Remind your child they are whining, and you will relpy to a normal voice.



• Use a sign. Have a 'No Whining' sign to hand in the kitchen can be more useful than you think!



• Write a Social Story. Write a short story with a whiney character. When a child hears you reading the whiney lines (exaggerate these), they will find it fun. Talk to them afterwards about the character, and what it was like to listen to. Talk about how the character can use their normal voice to say how they feel.



• Make a whine-o-meter. Seriously! Put the following numbers 1-5 on a chart,

1. Normal voice 2. A little whiney 3. Whining 4. Very Whiney

5. Loud and way too Whiney

Using pictures to illustrate each one is good. Let your child know what number they are on the chart, and see which voice they can use to get down to number 1.

I am writing a few social stories about whining at the moment, I'll add them to the site under the social skills section soon! If you have any thoughts, or tried and tested methods of 'Whine Reduction', please add them here.

Good luck!


Claire.